


The Thing About True Colours

by PixelPax



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Swapfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Falling In Love, Family, Frisk (Undertale) Is a Sweetheart, Gender-Neutral Frisk (Undertale), I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Multi, Papyrus (Undertale) Knows More Than He Lets On, Politics, Polyamory, Prejudice Against Monsters (Undertale), Racism, Reverse Harem, Sans (Undertale) Needs a Hug, Slow Burn, Social Commentary, Swapfell Papyrus (Undertale), Swapfell Sans (Undertale), Underfell Papyrus (Undertale), Underfell Sans (Undertale), Underswap Papyrus (Undertale), Underswap Sans (Undertale), copious allusions to myths and fairytales, for certain characters definitely, it's gonna get interesting kids, just tagged that way for ease of access sorry!, kind of?, like so many, may add more depending :), not actually a reader fic, or them, this girl is gonna make these monsters her friends even if it kills her
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:15:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24411919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PixelPax/pseuds/PixelPax
Summary: It was meant to be a social experiment- nothing more and nothing less- but she got curious, they got interested and it  was just a matter of time before it flew off the rails. With an unexpected tangle of romance, a secret of trans-dimensional proportions to keep, and far too many skeletons in her closet, Holly's sure this is going to be her most interesting year by far.If only she could get her roommates to stop trying to kill her first.
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Frisk (Undertale) & Reader, Papyrus (Undertale)/Original Character(s), Papyrus (Undertale)/Reader, Sans (Undertale)/Original Character(s), Sans (Undertale)/Reader
Comments: 7
Kudos: 31





	1. A Prologue (Where Monsters Once Roamed & Will Roam Again)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone! This was a draft for a fic I had in the works from years ago and just recently I got back into the undertale fandom and figured it was about time I started posting some of this. Might as well provide some light in dark times, right?
> 
> (Oh and I know that this might be annoying for some but for all those who haven't, please sign some petitions or donate if you can because black lives matter! Thank you, you're amazing!)
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little foray into the wondrous world of undertale AUs and reverse harems. Sorry about the long prologue but I promise that it actually has a purpose behind it! Thank you for reading, everyone!
> 
> XX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! This was a draft for a fic I had in the works from years ago and just recently I got back into the undertale fandom and figured it was about time I started posting some of this. Might as well provide some light in dark times, right?
> 
> (Oh and I know that this might be annoying for some but for all those who haven't, please sign some petitions or donate if you can because black lives matter! Thank you, you're amazing!)

It had been her idea, at first.

The path up to Leviathan Cranny was pretty easy once you knew the way; shimmy like so across the cliff face, grasping at tree branches and vines as you go. Don’t scrape yourself on the sharp and craggy stones (her knee still hurt from the last time) and always make sure to look out for that stray root just in case you got your sandals caught in it.

Holly was practically an expert at it. It was _her_ hole in the rock, after all. Up there was a hidden place where Declan’s teasing could never quite reach her, where she could watch Mom and Dad as they laughed and talked and drank on the shore, and where she could sit and look out across the lake as evening rolled in like a velveteen blanket over the distant mountain peak. Leviathan Cranny was more than just a hole in the rock, though. It was an all-purpose adventure playground; a pirate ship, an underwater cave, a mermaid’s rock-house, a spaceship, a library and anything else she could dream up that day.

It occurred to her a few days after she found it that it was also a perfect diving board.

Far below, the lake rippled as a teensy figure spluttered up from beneath the blue. Jubilant peals of boyish laughter and high-pitched shouts floated up to meet her as a curious but wary grin curled across her mouth.

She toed the edge of her little safe haven cautiously, much like a cat testing how far they could push a glass before it fell. It was hard to tell which was more dizzying: the height of the drop or the slap of the vicious summer sun on the back of her head. The little coloured dots gesticulating in the water below looked less and less like her brothers and more like the toys from her dollhouse back home. It might’ve even been funny if it didn’t make her head swim.

“C’mon, Holly! You’ve got to do this- for _science!_ ”

One of her brothers- Declan, if she had to take a guess- cheered and waved his arms wildly above his head. His hair was dyed an unrecognisable black from the water and the goggles plastered across his eyes gave him the appearance of some sort of distant bug-eyed sea urchin. Colt, her other brother, wasn't much better in his encouragement. There must’ve been some latent weakness that he sensed in her because he didn’t hesitate to seize it around the throat like a starved sea-snake, cupping pale hands around his mouth to jeer up at her.

“Don’t be a baby about it, Holly! Just do it!”

It was a terrible insult upon her pride and not one that could simply go unanswered for.

“I’m not a baby! You’re a bigger baby than I’ll _ever_ be!” she bit back cleverly. Ah, yes, that would show him (although in her defence, she was seven). Regardless, his response was to merely laugh at her- not unkindly, though she could feel the sting of it ricocheting off her wounded pride.

"Hurry up and jump, then! It’s really not that far down, I promise! It just looks way bigger than it is.”

Once more, Holly peered out over the edge.

There was nothing believable about that. It was a suspiciously long drop. It hadn’t looked that way earlier when she’d climbed up to play the last fifteen times or even when she’d come up with the idea of diving in the first place (“I bet you I could make a huge splash if I jumped out of that big hole in the rock!”) but that had been then and this was now. Big things looked a lot bigger and scarier when you were little like she was and she was very little indeed.

Her brothers didn’t seem to care either way. They were simply in it for the thrill of it.

“Jump, jump, jump!”

She hesitated and glanced down into the glimmering water below. Her reflection wavered, freckled and sunburnt and sour with uncertainty as it stared up at her from the dusty depths of Mt. Ebott’s lake. For a fearful second, some deep and primal urge in her stomach tied her to the edge of that cliff and she almost did it- she almost jumped in. But then her stomach did a particularly hard spin and the urgent need was gone as quickly as it had come.

“I… I changed my mind. I-It's too high,” she told her reflection hesitantly. For a moment, she felt ashamed by how quickly she'd crumbled but then realised- with no small amount of relief- that the reflection couldn’t hear her. Instead, she chose to puff out her chest and lean over to yell to the rest of her impatient audience, “I’m not doing it anymore!”

“What? Oh, come on!”

With her heart still balanced in her mouth, Holly clambered down the rock-face. She skipped past the scraggled tree root and the pointed stones and then, like an alley-cat, scarpered the rest of the way back down to the water’s edge to meet her brothers' disapproval. It was easy for her to ignore how the shivers only vanished when her toes met the sand. After all, Holly absolutely wasn’t scared of anything.

“I- I can’t do it,” she reasoned astutely, “because… because the lake monsters might not like it if I jump. I don’t want to wake them up for something silly like a dare.”

Declan had the gall to look genuinely baffled before his lips split into a pitying grin. “Monsters aren’t actually real, you know. That’s just some stupi- uh, silly story someone made up to make sure people didn’t wander up the mountain and get lost and die or something."

"Monsters _are_ real.” They had to be. It's what Mommy had told her, after all. “When I grow bigger, I’m gonna be the world’s most number one adventurer and I’m gonna show you that they're real!”

Her brothers traded looks as they dragged themselves out of the water, shaking down like a pair of disappointed water-logged dogs. Colt, on her left side, shook his head and she grumbled as he sprayed her with cool lake droplets.

“You’re so much like Mom, it’s actually uncanny."

Holly frowned up at her older brother. “What’s ‘unca-canny’ mean?”

“Uncanny. It means that you’re weird.”

“ _You’re_ weird.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Not even a little bit, bug-bear.”

“I’m not a bug-bear!” But she was giggling and he was too and suddenly, there was a third voice rippling along the lake-side towards them.

“You tell him, holly-berry!”

Holly’s laughter immediately broke out into a squeal as the world was wrenched out from beneath her. A soft, sun-seeped towel wrapped around her middle and dark curls drew a familiar curtain across her eyes as she was lifted into a familiar embrace. Almost on instinct, she wrapped her arms around her kidnapper’s neck and buried her face in the thick mane of smoke-smelling ringlets.

Mom smelled of honey and smoke and summer. Holly didn’t know if magic had a smell, but she hoped it would be of that.

“What were you all still doing out there, my little adventurers?” Mom sounded more playful than angry as she herded them away from the water’s edge. The dimples at her lips crinkled and she set a hand playfully atop her plump hip, the other clasping Holly close to her middle. “I know you’re probably having all sorts of fun but it’s almost time to head back to the lodge. Dad and I were starting to wonder whether we should just leave you all behind and go have fun on our own somewhere.”

She sounded like she was joking but Holly decided to cling a little tighter, just in case.

“We were jumping off the cliff,” Declan replied with a casual shrug. “Holly said she didn’t want to ‘cause we might wake up the monsters who live under Mt Ebbot. I think she was just scared, though.”

Holly was entirely ignorant of her mother’s strained smile as she twisted to glare down at him. His smirk made her stomach boil.

“I was _not_ scared!”

“You were, too,” Declan snorted.

“Mommy,” she whined, unwilling to be beat, “Dec and Colt said that monster’s aren’t real.”

Her mother only hummed a laugh into Holly’s hair as the brother in question scoffed and grumbled below. “And I suppose those two know everything now, don’t they? The next thing you know, they’ll be saying that magic isn’t real either and we both know how silly that is.”

Holly nodded seriously.

Silly didn’t even begin to cover it. Magic _was_ real and if there was one thing that she could always agree with, it was that her brothers were the weirdest people in the whole wide world for believing otherwise. Santa had to deliver his presents somehow, and magic was the only answer to that mystery!

Though she couldn’t see him, she could hear Colt rolling his eyes. “Mom, I love you but please don’t encourage her. She still tells all the kids in her class that I’m some sort of changeling who was switched at birth and that you’re a lost mermaid princess.”

He sounded more amused by this than he wanted to admit and Holly had to stifle a giggle when she felt Mom’s breath hitch in an appalled gasp.

“But I _am_ the lost mermaid princess. It’s why I-”

“It’s why you wear your pearls all the time so that one day your lost mermaid family might come and find you, we know!” Colt huffed. “I cannot believe that I actually _fell_ for that story.”

Mom’s laugh rang clear like a wind chime. “It’s not a story! All of my tales are true, especially that one and _especially_ the ones about monsters. Here’s a question for you, Mr. Non-Believer: If monsters don't exist, why is this place called Leviathan Lake?”

“Greedy tourist boards wanted to appeal to gullible fantasy nerds, I'm guessing. Case in point: you.”

Holly didn’t really get it but it must’ve been a little funny because Mom’s chest shivered with quiet chuckles.

They moved the rest of the way back to camp in relative silence. Holly was mostly busy pondering her brothers’ riddling words about magic and monsters. Eventually, Declan and Colt grew impatient- ‘troublesome twin tearaways’, her grandad liked to say- and rushed ahead with their feet trailing sand and mud and grass like trophies. She was much happier to stay clutched in her mother’s arms as the world trundled by. She was too tired to walk right now anyway and it was warm and safe where she was.

Eventually, her musings came to a head. A question occurred to her quite suddenly and she had to squirm around in her towel just to turn and look her mother in the eye. Her mom, though wincing under the weight shift, indulged her with a bemused tilt of the lips.

“Do you… Do you think the monsters will ever come out of the mountain?”

A small smile blossomed across Mom's lips- a genuine one, though it seemed sad somehow.

“One day, but maybe not for a little while yet. What do you think?”

Holly considered it for a second, glancing out of her mom’s thick dark curls to look up at the mountain peak in the distance. The stars were bright tonight like the glow-in-the-dark galaxy stuck to her bedroom ceiling. Could monsters even see the sky if they were underground? She hoped so.

“Couldn’t we just go and visit them? You said that they were meant to be nice monsters, so… maybe they’d want to be friends with us if we went to help? Could we ask Dad?”

“Well, aren’t you a brave little adventurer,” Mom laughed softly and pressed her lips playfully to Holly’s damp hair, then her cheek and her chin. Holly broke out into tired, wheezy giggles. “Chasing griffins, looking for sea monsters, and freeing ancient civilisations- who would’ve guessed my youngest would grow up to be such a daredevil? I don’t think we’ll be able to free them tomorrow, though. Maybe we’ll do it another day, though only if you promise me first that you won’t go climbing any mythical mountains or jumping out of any more holes in cliffs without me.”

"It wasn’t a hole, it was a cranny,” she corrected immediately because that’s what Colt had called it, although he had laughed when he said it and she still didn’t know why. Holly had made that her new favourite word, right beside her new favourite phrase: ‘nooks and crannies’. He’d laughed at that, too. “And I didn’t jump off it even though I said I would. I guess I can’t really save the monsters if I can’t even do that. That was the opposite of brave. That was me being a _baby_.” Her nose scrunched with sheer distaste at the word.

“Well, I don’t know about that,” Mom mused. “I think you were being much braver by _not_ jumping.”

Holly frowned to herself and looked up into forlorn, dancing hazel eyes; her mother's fond smile always filled her with a strange and immeasurable warmth, even if the words didn’t really make much sense.

“I don’t think that’s right, Mommy.”

But Mom laughed and that was more than enough for Holly.

It was easy to fall back into silence after that. Mom hummed quietly, some familiar melody that had fallen out their squeaky radio on the long and winding drive over. There was a rusted car engine starting in the near distance, vehicle doors slamming shut, her dad’s rough and bemused rumble rolling over the muddy grass. Her mom’s heartbeat rested like a steady drum under her ear.

“One day, I’m gonna meet a real monster,” she announced tiredly, smothering a yawn, “and we’re gonna be best friends and they’re gonna teach me magic and stuff and we’re gonna go on _all_ the good adventures.”

Though she couldn’t see it, her mother’s smile was warm. It felt like there might’ve been a joke there somewhere.

“If anyone could do it I think it would be you, holly-berry. Now, let’s start heading home before those boys of ours start causing any more trouble.”

Their footsteps faded on the trail as they wandered, unbeknownst of the civilisation lurking mere miles beneath them. At the junction where Leviathan Lake opened out into the ocean, an ancient and undisturbed sea creature lay on the sea floor, waiting and watchful. Deep under Mt Ebbot, monster-kind ambled about an underground metropolis with their eyes pressed hopefully to rock-covered ceilings. Several worlds apart, scores of skeletons stirred awake and stepped out into snow and ice to begin another day.

And exactly seventeen years before the seventh human fell, Holly Ward slept on in her mother’s arms and dreamt of magic and monsters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little foray into the wondrous world of undertale AUs and reverse harems. Sorry about the long prologue but I promise that it actually has a purpose behind it! Thank you for reading, everyone!
> 
> XX


	2. Oh-So Hot & Bothered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seeds are sown, our protagonist is introduced, and everyone's favourite skeleton has just a few doubts about it all.

“Oh, I am going to be _so_ late!”

She was like a drunken dancer on a tightrope; graceless, blundering, a mess of giddy adrenaline and frantic desperation. There were several choice words aimed at her back, pedestrians scattering like marbles underfoot as she ran and her lungs brimmed with fire and agony. The sour tang of adrenaline ran strong on her tongue and her eyes were streaming so much she could barely see but the pain was barely an afterthought.

There was no doubt in her mind anymore: the universe was trying to sabotage her.

First, her alarms didn’t go off- not a huge deal, she was an expert at making up lost time! But then the apartment elevator had very nearly _broken down_ with her in it. Then, as if all that hadn’t somehow been enough, she’d discovered that the city buses were all on diversion due to sewage drainage issues. _Sewage drainage issues_ , of all things! It was starting to feel a little like the world was specifically gearing up to take her down.

By the time she reached the city's boundary, Holly was at least fifty-percent sure that her muscles were verging on internal combustion. (Fifty-percent because either she was combusting or she was in the middle of a heart attack and honestly, she couldn’t really tell which was worse.)

“Everything alright, ma’am? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you come through the gate before.”

She glanced up and squinted through the blur of sweat and panic.

A soldier- one of the half-a-dozen littering Ebott’s infamous military checkpoint- stood over her with a clipboard in hand and his eyebrows lost somewhere in his hairline. He was short, stout, tanned with sun and laugh lines and was looking at her like she was the most amusing thing he’d seen all week- which she probably was, in all fairness. After sprinting like a wild-woman through downtown, she must have made quite a sight; a tiny walking whirlwind of panic and desperation teetering wildly down the road on too-tall boots.

Lucky for her, any shame she might’ve had had been left behind in the dust about half a mile ago. Unluckily, so had both of her lungs.

“Hi,” she gasped and waved at him weakly. “Holly Ward. Meeting with... royal scientist... Slept through... alarms... Oh, I… am gonna be _so_ late.”

It was hard to tell whether the man was impressed, baffled or just plain entertained by the uncomfortable spectacle she made. He seemed to settle on the latter as she shoved her I.D at him.

“Must be one hell of a meeting," he muttered. "Arms up, please.”

“It’s… It’s kind of more like a trial interview, I think?” It took her utmost not to fidget and squirm as the scanner waved past. The image of a flipped hourglass held strong in her head and she could feel the precious seconds sifting through her stubby, sweaty fingers. “Good impressions are kind of out the window, though... If you’ve any tips on how to convince someone to let you stay with them without coming off as super creepy or weird, I am all ears.”

It was meant as a joke, breathless smile and all. Her new soldier friend didn’t seem to take it as one. He stopped dead and his gaze flicked stiffly to the city wall behind him- a massive monolith of steel and barbed wire, the dividing line that drew apart the human and monster halves of Ebott City- before tugging back to her. Maybe it was just her imagination, but didn’t his smile seem a little more strained than before?

“Can’t say I have,” he said carefully. “Though we could try and provide you with an escort if you’d like, ma’am? It might help cut down on time.”

Oh, and it was _so_ tempting. The mental time bomb in her mind's eye ticked, obnoxious and loud and accusatory. The daunting promise of more heeled sprints almost had her sagging and she very nearly gave in then and there but then she glanced up at the towering stone wall (the one that so few had crossed before her) and a flare of pride and excitement chased away the ache in her legs and lungs.

It was stupid and childish and yet she wanted to cross that boundary herself.

“That _would_ be amazing," she admitted weakly, "but I wouldn’t want to be a bother for something stupid like this. I got myself into this mess in the first place, so I’ll just have to get myself out of it.” Holly grinned hesitantly but the soldier’s pinched expression didn’t shift. “Right?”

“If you say so, ma’am.” He released her I.D. cards back into her custody with a reluctant huff and a careful look. “Just remember, if you run into any trouble we’ve always got people up here to help. Stay safe out there.”

“Of course! You, too.”

As if on cue, the metal gate ahead made an abrasive clanking noise and began to shift on its axle. Her heart leapt, this time not on the wings of an adrenaline rush but with pure and unadulterated excitement. She had to restrain herself from just darting through.

Eventually, one of the soldiers marking it raised a hand.

“You’re clear. Go on throu-”

_“Thank you, thank you, thank you!”_

Their strained grins followed her as she hustled swiftly past them into the square. That didn’t matter, though because-

She was _finally_ here.

And Holly had to wonder whether she'd unwittingly fallen down a rabbit hole somewhere along the way.

These city streets were nothing like the grey, macabre tarmac jungle that stood on the opposite side of the wall. These streets were tacked with greenery, lines of blue mushrooms that sheltered from the sun under window sills and strange gold flowers that seemed to sway and dance. This was a patchwork mix-match of houses and half-finished construction sites. Incomplete buildings stood at odd, intriguing angles with doorways boasting mutant frames. The infamous delta rune sat proudly on every other shop-roof and fairy lights, loaded washing lines, and rows of golden flowers were strung across the houses like miniature sunbeams. It felt very much as if some child had picked apart their favourite legos and shoved them all together in some unholy vision of doll-house happiness.

The people straying up and down the street were equally hard not to stare at. It was like gazing into an ever-shifting cloud of kaleidoscope furs and scales and slime. They certainly had no issues staring at her, wide-eyed and cautious as she flitted past them like a baby bird exploring the ground for the first time- which, now that was thinking about it, was exactly what she was.

Every minute molecule in her body wanted to stop and just gawk at it all. And yet, adrenaline and panic sped her onward and with a curse aimed heavenward, she set off like a bottle rocket back down the street once more.

A downside to never having been in this part of the city before? She had absolutely no idea where she was going. Under her heels, the street seemed to blur into one long strip of colour and sound and awe that swallowed her whole in moments, leaving her stranded at the corners of every other sidewalk with her head twisting back and forth to gauge where she was. Her only saving grace was the fact that whoever had built this topsy-turvy place had been a real stickler for road signs apparently.

Monsters yelped and darted out of the way, yanking each other aside as she dashed by and her hasty apologies were lost to the wind behind her. By the end of today, she was probably going to have several angry mobs of pedestrians- humans and monsters alike- banging at her door but that was a mere afterthought. For now, she pumped everything she had into running, darting empty alleys, sliding past tilted shop signs and skidding around bends in the road until finally the scent of grease and flame caught on her nose.

She looked up, desperate and hopeful and panting like a dog strung out in a heat wave.

_Yes, she'd made it!_

Grillby's had certainly seen better days; the warm, brown exterior was marred and faded in places which was strange for a relatively new building. There were dents in the walls, cracks in the window and the door handle seemed several screws away from falling out the frame. Worse than that, she could just make out the remains of crudely-scrawled graffiti and brand marks obscured beneath a layer of fresh paint.

(A dirty, contrite feeling oozed down her spine, one that had nothing to do with her lateness. She shoved it back down deep where it belonged.)

Despite all that though, the sound of amiable chatter and clinking drinks mingled with the low hum of the city streets. Soft, inviting jazz floated through the open window. It reeked with the welcoming smells of smoke and oil and fries but also with an undercurrent of something much less familiar that she couldn't quite place. Fizzy almost, like sherbet on her tongue. As battered and bruised and run-down as it looked, she had never seen a more welcoming sight in all her life.

It took her a wild second of rummaging and heavy breathing to pull out that crumpled bit of print from her jacket pocket.

_**VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR MONSTER-HUMAN SOCIAL EXPERIMENT** _

_Wight Manor, located at the edge of Ebott City, is currently looking for a human tenant who would be willing to participate in a government-funded monster-human social experiment performed under Royal Scientist, Dr Alphys._

_Volunteers must be easily adaptable as well as open-minded. They must be willing to live and operate within certain parameters, respecting the needs and wishes of the other tenants in the household whilst complying with the scientific and safety recommendations of the study (including but not limited to: video monitoring, weekly reports, personal logs, health examinations). Most importantly, they **must** be capable of working effectively with monster kind._

_Permanent food and accommodation will be provided at the manor itself with no extra cost. Highly recommended for students attending Ebott University.  
  
 **If interested, please contact Dr Alphys (see contact details below) to apply or acquire for further information).**_

It seemed like an unusual set-up for a renowned scientist to meet up in but who was she to judge. (Or complain when the food smelled that good.)

Her unfortunate reflection winced at her in the front window as she reached for the door; short, russet curls wild and frizzed from their short tryst with the wind, freckles masked beneath an unpleasant full-faced flush, eyes puffy and red with exertion. Hopefully, Alphys wouldn't be the type to judge too much by appearance... or lateness, or panic, or...

Ah, but who was she kidding? This already spelt disaster.

With a grimacing smile aimed at her tense image in the glass, she turned the wobbling and half-rusted handle and stepped inside.

The first thing she noticed was that it was surprisingly deserted. The few patrons that were there- dog monsters that had her fingers twitching with the sudden urge to _pet, pet, pet_ \- stilled the moment the bell rang above the open door. There were muted growls, a few subtle sniffs in her direction that had her stalling but no one tried to stop her.

It wasn’t a large bar by any means, kind of snug and cosy with a simple kind of rustic charm.

The bartender- and she really did have to swallow a delighted, child-like gasp- was quite literally _on fire._ Wire-framed glasses (which somehow didn’t melt?) shifted to face her the moment the door handle turned. It was mesmerising to watch; regal tongues of red and white flame flickered impossibly around the glass in his hands, playing with the edges of his well-tailored suit without ever catching a spark. It took everything she had not to pinch herself just to check she wasn't dreaming.

The fire-monster studied her in return for a moment (here he was, an actual living inferno with an invisible smile) and offered a casual wave.

“Oh, _wow_ ,” was her first wildly inappropriate thought.

She realised, only a second too late, that that it was less of a thought and more a of quiet exclamation.

Across the bar, the fire monster seized in place like a mouse caught in a trap. He flared an embarrassed, otherworldly shade of cerulean that would have had her saying it a second time had she not clamped a hand across her jaw. Static raced down her spine and a look around the room told her that most of the patrons were now staring at her and her own cheeks immediately started to burn. But her guilty apology- because _oh god, she’d just made an ass out of herself at this poor monster’s expense and oh god, did she know literally nothing about impulse control_ \- barely had time to form.

“yeah, grillbz is definitely _hot stuff.”_

For the record, Holly did _not_ jump about a foot in the air. She also didn't squeal like a sad and broken squeaky toy or flail uselessly. She didn’t even register the joke until the fire monster (Grillby?) let out a crackle that almost sounded like a laugh.

The bar, which had been quiet and thick with tension ever since her entrance, broke out in soft chuckles and half-hearted groans.

Holly should have been relieved. It should have been the moment where she sighed or laughed or something. But her brain had just rolled to a stop. It was no wonder that she stopped breathing almost entirely. After all, it is not very often that one comes face to face with the very spectre of death himself.

The first thing her eyes snapped to were the eye-sockets. They were darker than any black hole or ocean sinkhole or oil spill could ever hope to be. An impossible sort of blackness, the type that threatened to drag you in and swallow you whole if you leant just an inch too far. Two pinpricks of white light flickering at her from within should have been just as impossible and yet there they were, glimmering bemusedly and just as eerie and inhuman as they were pretty. There was a devilish smile stretched impossibly wide across taut cheeks, laugh lines and creases pressed into bone that just didn't seem to make any sense.

“looks like you got under his _grill,_ kiddo," the skeleton mused, implausibly alive. "sparks were flying before you even knew. some might even call it a _heat_ and run.”

Holly’s jaw flapped open. A barrage of hot, bewildered questions bounced around in her brain so fast it was hard to concentrate on any of them. It felt a little like if she opened her mouth, they might just explode out of her and by the bemused look on the skeleton's face, he could tell.

“what, you got a bone to pick with me or somethin’?”

“No." Holly startled, flailed and flushed as she tried to grip at some semblance of composure. Safe to say, she failed miserably. "Yes! What? I mean, uh… N-No, that's not it at all. Sorry, it’s just..."

"it's just?" He definitely sounded amused now and she fumbled for an excuse.  
  
"I’ve never really been to this side of the city before so this is all a bit new to me. I guess you could say that I’m a bit of a _hot mess?”_ It was a sad, sad attempt at a cover-up but the skeleton looked amused by it anyway. Her cheeks flared and she cleared her throat, desperately side-lining the stranger to aim a sheepish look at the flustered bartender behind her who still shone several shades of pleasant blue.

“I am so sorry about that, by the way. I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable or anything.”

The fire monster stuttered. He made some kind of careful gesture that she just about recognised. Sign language? Cress would be ecstatic.

The skeleton let out a low chuckle. “he’s chill with it, heh. you’re not the first human he’s had gawking at him. dunno if he’s ever gotten that kinda reaction before, though.”

Relief and sheepishness danced a twisted tango under her ribs. On the plus side, there were probably worse conversation starters. His plain amusement lifted her guilty smile into something a little less ashamed- still mortified, but less so now that she knew it wasn't just her. And really, she'd already dug herself a hole so what did it matter if she dug herself a few feet deeper? 

“I couldn’t really help myself,” she admitted with a shy, awed grin. “He’s just... so pretty.”

Across the room, Grillby flared a touch brighter. She could have sworn there was blue smoke trails drifting from his temples. It had her stifling a small smile as he ducked behind the counter. The skeleton looked like he was trying not to laugh.

“he is _smoking hot_ ,” the skeleton agreed with an, amused rumble. "you're holly, right?”

“That's me. Would that make you..." She squinted at him. "...Dr Alphys?”

“nah,” he snorted. “i’m sans, sans the skeleton. i’m kinda alph’s lab assistant.”

He freed his hand from the tangle of pocket for a handshake and she took it.

Wow... It was so _smooth_ , she marvelled immediately. His thicker fingers easily dwarfed hers with a warmth she hadn’t quite expected from a skeleton. There were a million questions she wanted to ask but she beat them back down with a hard, mental hammering and tried to focus on smiling politely. 

“It’s nice to meet yo-”  
  
But a sad, drawn-out fart sound ripped from their clasped hands and her greeting fell apart like a wet paper towel. It took her a second to even figure out what'd happened and, for a moment, she wasn't even sure how to react. But then she saw the little glimmer of amusement in Sans' eyes and the saucy grin he wore that seemed just a few inches too wide.

All at once, the tension and nerves and stress that had been building up in her chest seemed to crumble away. She couldn't have hoped to smother the startled, helpless giggles once they started.

"Okay, so I was going to say it’s nice to meet you, but I think I just changed my mind."

“heh, it’s the ol’ whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it’s always funny.” If she knew any better, she’d say he was pleased with himself. “c'mon, we've been waiting for you.”

With that, he turned around and set off at a leisurely stroll towards the back of the bar. Holly followed, trying not to look like she was still staring.

He was taller than her only by an inch or two but really, who wasn't? He was also wide- not hugely so, but enough to make you wonder how a literal skeleton could have any noticeable weight at all. He wore a comfortable-looking blue jacket, a slightly stained t-shirt, black shorts and, weirdest of all, a pair of pink slippers. It was hard not to laugh at that.

Beyond him, the bartender and the armoured dog monsters at the door, there was only one other person in the whole of the empty bar: a pretty little yellow reptilian monster sitting in a booth off to the side, with her dull and dirty claws digging around nervously among the folds of a dark dress and a skittish light ticking behind her clouded glasses. When her flighty gaze alighted on the pair wading through the bar towards her, she gasped and shot to her shaking feet.

“Oh, you're h-here! Thank the s-stars! I w-was starting to w-wonder whether s-something had g-gone w-wrong already.”

“heh. i guess you could say your concern was alph-or nothing.”

Alphys- because who else could it be, really- let out a hesitant huff. Holly cast a curious, awed look between the both of them.

Monsters were all so _different_ compared to humans.

Alphys, with her wide eyes and polished scales and dull spines, looked soft and mellow and warm. When her jaw drew back into a nervous smile, it revealed several rows of dull, square-shaped teeth. Not sharp canines like she’d expected (Though was it bad to say that she was almost disappointed?) There was a thick drift of yellow beneath the lizard monster’s dress that seemed to twitch and curl with a nervous sort of tick- a tail, maybe? She could only hope.

Sans was smooth in a way Alphys' wasn't. His grin seemed liked a permanent fixture on his face which kind of made sense since he was a skeleton. But then he winked at Alphys and that was absolutely _not_ something that seemed possible. Though her brain told her that bone couldn’t possibly move like that, her heart told her that anything could happen when magic was involved and the longer she looked, the more she found herself hopelessly fascinated by it.

How _did_ he do that? Was he made of real bone or was it some weird magic-bone material?

_Ah! Stop staring, you useless crayon!_

She had to pretend not to feel his bemused eye-lights digging like a proverbial heel into her back as she tore her eyes away. It definitely didn't help that her cheeks felt like they were on fire.

She coughed sheepishly, dragging Alphys’ eyes back to her.

“I really am so, so sorry that I kept you waiting for so long. I’ve had a bit of a crazy time getting here- I don’t think I’ve ever had to run that fast in my entire life!”

Alphys blinked and blinked again.

“You _r-ran_ here from the human city? Is that why y-you look…?” The lizard monster’s eyes blew wide as she caught herself. “Wait, no! I-I didn’t mean- oh, never mind! Pretend I d-didn’t say anything!”

The poor, flustered scientist put her whole head in her hands, looking past her trembling knees to the floor as if praying it would swallow her whole. Holly couldn’t help but choke on a surprised bubble of laughter.

“If you think this is bad, you should’ve seen me when I woke up this morning,” she joked.

Alphys almost keened.

“I am s-so sorry. I didn’t mean to m-make it sound like that at all, it’s just-”

“No, no it’s okay! I kind of deserve it. Consider it a fair trade for me being so late.”

Alphys’ face burst into flame as she mumbled some unintelligible, self-deprecating curse into her claws and Holly tried not to laugh again. Honestly, it was incredibly cute and it was kinda nice to know that her employer-slash-landlady was as frazzled as she was.

“W-Well, I-I mean…”

Holly, still grinning reassuringly, had to take took pity on the poor monster. She cleared her throat, held her head up tall and brandished a sweaty hand in the lizard's direction.

“How about we just start over? Hi, I’m Holly, a would-be journalist who’s made a real mess of this whole thing already.” Her eyes narrowed playfully. “You don’t have a whoopee-cushion too, do you?”

That seemed to do it. Alphys’ let out something like a snort and her scales coloured impossibly. It took her an awkward second to stumble out of her seat and grasp at Holly’s hand in some shaky, anxiety-ridden approximation of a handshake. There was no whoopee cushion this time.

(It took an embarrassing amount of effort to stifle her fascination when her hands met smooth, sheer scales. Monsters were incredible!)

“N-No. I’m Alphys, the current royal scientist. And, um, s-same,” she laughed nervously and tugged her hand back. Her expression was a lot calmer. “I’m so glad you finally made it. We weren’t sure if you were e-even coming anymore. You seemed really n-nice in your emails- we didn’t have many a-applicants but you would’ve definitely been our first choice even if we d-did so, uh, yeah…”

“Oh, thank you! And don’t worry, I don’t think I’d miss this for the world.” Holly’s tired smile flickered to relief as she slipped into the booth beside the yellow-scaled monster. It was great timing. Her legs might have crumpled under her if she kept standing any longer. “I really am sorry for keeping you so long. This whole morning‘s been a huge disaster, if I’m being honest.”

“Oh, I know that f-feeling. And don’t worry, Sans is almost always late a-anyways so I’m kind of used to it.” Alphys waved a dismissive hand. Holly’s gaze tracked immediately to the short-statured skeleton but he merely grinned, shrugged and slid into the booth with about as much effort and interest as a dead fish. “He’s kind of my a-assistant- well, actually he’s one of the monsters you’ll be s-staying with. The others wanted to m-meet you as well but we didn’t want to overwhelm you.”

“Others?”

“Oh, don’t worry about them too m-much for now. We’re just here to get to know you a little better if that’s okay. Just try and imagine this kind of like a j-job interview for now and then we c-can talk about the specifics.” Alphys stopped and shifted uncertainly. “I mean, if you're o-okay with that...”

Holly merely crossed her legs, brushed a few invisible wrinkles from her skirt and beamed eagerly. They hadn't tried to chase her off yet Maybe- just maybe- she hadn’t messed this up, after all?

“Ready when you are!" she said cheerily.

The conversation that followed was probably one of the most memorable interview experiences she’d ever had. Her favourite questions definitely had to be: "on a scale of 1 to 10, how punny am I? no pun in-ten-ded" (eleven, obviously) and “Do you like a-anime?” (yes, depending on her mood). It was almost nice, more a meeting between friends than an interrogation. It wasn't hard to lose herself in it- maybe just a little too much.

Maybe that was why it took her so long to notice the familiar-unfamiliar pressure building at the back of her spine; a slow creeping sensation that had the hair on the back of her arm standing at attention. There didn’t even seem to be a single source for the sudden inexplicable jitters that crept across her muscles. It was just a throbbing singularity in her chest that screamed: _someone’s looking at you._

She cast a curious eye across the room between questions, fingers rubbing uneasy circles across her wrist.

(At the back of her mind, she noted just how quiet it was. Grillby's was a well-loved place; worn-out seating, cheerful tunes dropping from a broken jukebox, the smell of hot grease and good food. Why was it so deserted?)

Her gaze flicked to the dog-monsters playing cards near the door. They were all looking away.

“-delivers a really great message about friendship and love. It’s such an u-underrated show and not many people know about it but-”

Alphys hadn’t noticed her drift in attention, lost as she was in a ranting ramble about a show she liked. How they’d even managed to get to that topic, Holly had no idea but she hadn’t the heart to stop her. She felt guilty for not listening until she noticed that the other monster at the table wasn't either. She almost wondered whether he'd dozed off. (He seemed a little like a cat in more than a few ways. Laid-back and nonchalant and kind of lazy.) But then she shifted on the edge of her seat and his eye-lights sprung to hers and held.

Something odd crossed his expression. It sent soft alarm bells rattling in the back of her skull but then a second blinked by and his grin was back in place, immobile and amused as if it had never even slipped away.

“i got a quick question for you, kid.”

Alphys stumbled mid-rant, words draining from her mouth in mumbles. Holly straightened and felt invisible eyes follow her as she rose. It was a little difficult to concentrate all of a sudden and the bar's stiff air felt sluggish and heavy. Or maybe that was just the heady, concerned pulse pounding in her ears as the room turned just a little bit too quiet.

“Lay it on me,” she dared cheerily.

Sans’ focus zipped to target something lingering just below her collar bone and her bravado immediately vanished. Why was she suddenly... so uneasy? Why did she feel exposed?

Holly felt a sudden and inexplicable urge to itch at her chest.

“what do you get out of this?” Sans asked lightly. It was a weirdly dangerous contrast: though his tone never shifted from that lackadaisical even keel, his eyes burned cold with distrust. Holly almost shivered. “not a lot of humans are interested in hanging out with us monsters without a price. so what’s your deal?"

_Oh._

She could almost feel the atmosphere shift.

Alphys immediately went stiff in the seat beside her. Her eyes swivelled like panicked spinning tops behind her glasses, claws digging tiny dents in the tabletop as she laughed nervously.

“S-Sans, you...“

Sans hadn’t moved from where he was slumped across the table-top but his smile was wooden and the weight of his silent judgement crawled an uncomfortable path down Holly’s spine. She felt a little how she imagined a blind fly might feel trapped in a web. She felt uneasy for a reason she couldn't place just yet. A dangerous sort of reason.

“Well, that's kind of a heavy question,” she tried to joke and felt it die a horrible, awkward death under his unflinching stare. She managed not to blanch somehow and instead smiled as best she could. “I, um... curiosity, I guess?”

Sans raised a brow at her. “not an answer, but okay."

“Sans!” Alphys hissed. She looked appalled and also... apprehensive? Her eyes flitting nervously from human to skeleton as the air took a distinctly ice-cold touch.

Holly just smiled crookedly.

"Sorry, but... I'm not sure that I have a better answer for you?” she tried hesitantly.

“uh-huh.”

Sans' fingers were tapping a small, impatient rhythm on the tabletop. He looked calculating and unsure. His grin was still in place but it was decidedly not as friendly, almost like he was laying down some sort of judgement of her.

It was a fair question on the surface. She was human and they were monsters and they had every right to be nervous. Still though, it felt a little like she'd tiptoed back out across a tightrope again and that whatever answer she chose here would decide whether she soared or plummeted.

Mom had always told her there was only one choice in this kind of situation- speak from the heart and hope it leads you home. Just to... be herself. It didn't always work but it was the one thing she had going for her right now. So, with a wry and grimacing smile having worked its back up to her lips, Holly huffed.

“Promise not to laugh?”

“uh." Sans's visible falter suggested he hadn't been betting on that kind of response. He recovered quickly though. "sure.”

“Alright, then.” Holly smiled awkwardly, took a deep breath and took the dive. “When I was little, my mom always used to tell me stories about monsters. For most people, it was just some scary urban legend told to make sure children didn’t go wandering anywhere they shouldn’t but she never really told it like that. I grew up hearing all these amazing things about magic, and monsters, and the Underground and then you guys get to the surface and suddenly...”

Suddenly, _everything_ had changed.

The world had been thrown into disarray. People had been terrified, governments thrown into uproar, religious leaders thrown for a loop as everything they knew about human history was re-written in under a day. Whispers of uprisings and monster-hate groups and riots were quick to start circulating but beyond all that came something new and unprecedented: revolution.

Healthcare, technology, psychology, ethics, law, education systems- all were thrown into the ring of revolutionization. Diseases thought to be incurable now had solutions. Procedures and goals thought to be implausible were now very real possibilities. Unsolved mysteries and global questions now had answers.

At the end of the day, Holly was as curious as anyone- more so. It had been one of the best days of her life when monsters returned to the surface and learning that everything she knew was real had set off giddy fire crackers in her stomach that somehow still hadn't quite died down yet. She had a feeling they never really would.

Monsters had changed everything.

“Suddenly, all my bedtime stories are real and _magic's_ real and, well... it's kind of my childhood dream come true. When I saw your advert in the news, it kind of got me thinking. I’m a journalist- or I’m trying to be. I want to learn everything I can about monsters and about magic. I'm just as curious as everyone else- I'm not even going to try and lie about that part. I want to know more about you guys. How you work, your culture, your languages, food, every day thought processes- everything. That's it, really. That's my main reason. I just... I have to know."

She had their attention. She wasn't sure whether it was the good kind of attention but she definitely had something.

The room was too quiet. When had the room gone quiet?

Alphys looked contemplative but Sans looked like he'd just swallowed a particular sour lemon. _That's it?_ his unimpressed look seemed to say. She could practically feel the interview slipping away from her with every shrinking moment and her heart plummeted. Desperate to bridge the gap before it got to wide, she cleared her throat.

"But... But that’s not my only reason! It’s also because-" _Because of what, Holly? Think!_ _You can still salvage this!_ "Because I thought that maybe I could spread the word about monsters!"

_...what?_

Sans' eye-ridges shifted up and he blinked at her almost skeptically. Alphys though looked as if she'd just been hit by some sort of golden epiphany. Holly, emboldened by her very not-negative reaction, jumped on that golden opportunity as quick as a whip.

"Yeah! Like... Like exposure, you know? To stop people from being scared of something they just don't understand yet. I guess a part of me thought that maybe... maybe we could try and learn from each other in a way? Monsters to human.” Was she babbling? It felt like she was babbling. “If you teach me about monsters and monster culture, I could use my journalism to help teach everyone else that they don't have to be scared of you. Kind of like an equal exchange sort of thing. Tear down that wall and stuff...”

What was she even saying? She didn't know anymore. It only occurred to her a moment into her spiel that Grillby’s had fallen strangely silent.

Alphys looked like she was calculating several ground-breaking scientific equations all at once- considering, thoughtful, pensive. Those were good emotions. Sans, on the other hand...

Holly's cheeks lit up and her grin shifted gingerly into a cough. "Good answer or…?”

“dunno about good,” the skeleton muttered but his brow was less creased, fingers less stiff where they gripped the table edge. She was counting that as a meagre win squeezed beneath her belt. She resisted the urge to fist-pump. “basically you’re just curious and you wanna use that to help us?”

“As curious as a cat with nine lives,” she chimed cheerfully and his smile jerked into something distinctly amused, though it was more in that _I-don’t-know-what-to-make-of-this_ kind of way. It wasn’t much, but his amusement did give her the confidence to clear her throat and straighten in her chair, eyeing him up curiously. “Do... Do you mind if _I_ ask _you_ a quick question now?“

“shoot."

“How do all your bones stay together?”

Sans stared at her for a second, eye-lights flickering. Holly just blinked back.

As the silence stretched on, she couldn’t help but start to wonder whether she’d horribly overstepped- or worse, whether she'd just broken him. But before she could even hope to apologise, Sans broke out into disbelieving snickers. His quiet laughter cut through the taut silence and with that one befuddling sound, all remaining shreds of tension still hovering over the booth snapped like a rubber band.

Alphys shivered and her shoulders slumped in pure relief. Holly wanted to join her, but instead settled for staring bemusedly at the skeleton sat across from her as he wiped a tired, laughter-wracked hand across his sockets. Had she done it? She didn't know how but she was almost ninety-percent sure she'd somehow just won him over.

“dunno,” he chortled. “anything’s _paw_ -sible with magic.”

She made to reply but his words caught up with her and forced her to a dead stop.

“Did you just...?”

There was a snort at her side as Alphys smothered a laugh under her claws. “Oh, S-Sans…”

“what? the moment was _purr-_ fect for it. besides, i can’t give away all my secrets. that would be a _bonafide cat-tastrophe_.” If he noticed that both Holly and Alphys leant into their groans perhaps a little too enthusiastically (anything to grasp back at that pleasant, shaky camaraderie from before), he didn't seem cowed by it. In fact, he seemed to revel in their half-genuine disgust “while we’re on the subject though, you got any other _purr_ -ressing questions for us-”

It was like a switch had been pressed. Just like that, Holly's heart soared for a wonderful, hope-filled moment and any shred of self-control, hesitation and dignity were left behind in the dirt as she bounced eagerly in her seat. 

“Only about a hundred!”

“-that aren’t about magic?”

Like hot air escaping a popped balloon, the enthusiasm rushed back out of her. Alphys hiccuped a laugh and Sans grinned, wide and smug like he’d just stumbled upon her ultimate weakness- and technically, he had. His grin was infectious though (relieving, more like) and she couldn’t help shooting a sheepish smile right back at him.

“Okay, okay, I do have just a couple questions for you- not magic-based, I promise.”

“claw-some. go ahead.”

She snorted. “You said I was gonna be staying with people other than you, right? How many?”

“O-Oh, that’s easy," Alphys jumped in, her claws tapping together in her enthusiasm. "Technically, there’ll only be nine of you-”

_“Only?"_

“The main wing of the mansion generally serves as kind of a t-temporary home for a lot of monsters since so much of the c-city’s still under construction. There’s not e-enough room for e-everyone but Asgore and Toriel have been very n-nice in letting us all stay with them until-”

“Wait, the king and queen?”

Holly recognised those names- it was hard not to. They'd been plastered across practically every tabloid, newspaper and magazine headline since the monsters had first returned to the surface- national celebrities in under a day, world-renowned wonders in less than a week.

Alphys nodded feverishly.

“Oh, y-yes. They s-seem quite scary at first but they're really nice. This whole p-program was designed by their request. To establish cohabitation as a real p-possibility, we have to p-prove that monsters and humans are c-capable of living together in p-peace- that's where you come in.”

“Oh,” was Holly's very eloquent reply. “Cool.”

She'd figured that it would be important (it'd been advertised as a 'government-funded' program) but there was something in the way Alphys phrased it that made it sound like so much more than that. There was something tucked away between the lines that she couldn't quite read just yet. If the king and queen of all monster-kind were involved, she couldn’t help but wonder how much was riding on this?

Her eyes widened and a stone-like boulder rolled to sit heavy in her stomach.

How much was now riding on _her?_

“You p-probably won’t interact with the other m-monsters much. Just the ones living in the s-same wing as y-you," Alphys assured her, misreading her surprise for concern. There was something nervous and flighty glinting behind her eyes though, something that dragged Holly's thoughts away from the sudden earth-shattering realisation that had just beset her and replacing it with a much milder curiosity.

“And... what’re they like?”

Alphys stopped and glanced towards Sans as if for help. There were several silent sentences traded on the wings of a few careful looks alone. Holly's alarm bells rang and she felt her intrigue swell unconsciously.

“They can b-be a little rowdy and some of them are definitely more… difficult to deal with than others." Alphys looked like she wanted to grimace but covered her displeasure with a nervous cough and an encouraging smile. Maybe a bit too encouraging, really. "They’re n-not all that bad once you g-get to know them, though. Blue and P-Papyrus are really quite sweet. They're the most excited to m-meet you.”

Blue and Papyrus. Filing those away for later, Holly grinned brightly.

“I'm excited to meet them, too! And don’t worry, I think I can deal with a little bit of ‘difficult’.” The jaded, unconvinced glance the monsters traded spoke the silent words of people who had once claimed something similar. She didn’t let it sway her. “Just in case though, is there anyone I should know about who _isn't_ particularly excited about this whole thing? I probably don’t want to be pushing any boundaries I shouldn’t.”

They simply stared at her, one amused and the other apologetic.

“there’s a reason we didn’t introduce you to ‘em straight away, pal,” Sans muttered. He looked like he wanted to wince like he was remembering something particularly unpleasant. “they aren’t gonna like any of this.”

”Oh..." Holly had more questions now than she did before. "Okay?”

She sent a questioning look to Alphys who just smiled shakily.

“D-Don’t worry, we w-won’t let anything happen to you. The important thing i-is that you don’t let them provoke you.”

That definitely didn’t bode well.

Holly turned wide, bewildered eyes in Sans' direction. He merely shrugged at her.

“they aren't gonna like having you in the house. means you could be in for a rough first couple of weeks.” He considered her carefully and tapped a thoughtful rhythm in the countertop. His smile didn’t drop even an inch. “think you can handle that, pal?”

Someone else might’ve been a little more leery, just a little hesitant. Someone else might’ve been cowed Alphys’ sudden interest in avoiding eye-contact- a sign of anxiety or a sign of guilt- or Sans’ unnervingly unreadable grin. Someone else might’ve flinched at the feel of watchful stares drilling into the small of her back or the bar’s suspicious silence.

(People were listening in- watching her. Why? Because she was human? Because they were curious? There were things not adding up, threads that connected to nothing and just _so many questions_.)

But Holly wasn’t someone else.

Magic had been her dream since she was a little girl. She’d grown up on fairytales and legends and myths and now that monsters were real- that _magic_ was real, she wasn’t about to let this chance to finally do something _good_ , something worthwhile, slip through her fingers. If the universe wanted to sabotage her, that was fine. She’d take it on the chin and roll with the punches like always. If her new roommates didn't like her? That was fine, too. She'd just have to win them over one way or another.

_Think you can handle it?_

And really, there was only ever one answer to that.

Holly summoned all her courage and grasped it tight, raised her chin nice and tall, and smiled for all she was worth. 

“Are you kidding? When do we start?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, I hope I haven't overdone it what that bit of exposition at the end. You can probably tell I was getting a little tired by the time I was finishing this. I was gonna introduce a few more of the skeletons in this one but I decided I'll save it for the next one!
> 
> I hope you've enjoyed this so far. Holly's a pretty hard character to write for but I am determined to do her justice! Please let me know what you think of her (and this chapter) if you can, because that would be amazing.
> 
> Make sure to take care of yourselves and have a good week!
> 
> Next Time: Bones are picked, skeletons are introduced and poor Holly is left wondering what exactly it is that she's gotten herself into.


End file.
